The decision of whether to combine the two Russellville Junior High School sports teams remains a topic of interest with Russellville School District Athletic Director Johnny Johnson.

For the past week, Johnson has sought comments from school patrons, parents of students involved in athletics and community residents. He will continue to take comments until Aug. 9 and said he is interested in hearing from as many people as he can in Russellville.

The question the district’s Board of Education will likely decide at its Aug. 20 school board meeting is whether Russellville Junior High School will continue to field two teams — Eastside and Westside — or if the school will have just one team in each sport, starting in the 2013-14 school year.

Johnson said he will provide all comments he receives to school board members who will decide the future status of RJHS teams.

“We’re asking for input that we will present at the next school board meeting in August,” Johnson said. “We’re asking if we should stay with what we have now or make a change.”

Johnson presented information on low participation numbers for the past three years for the eighth- and ninth-grade West football teams and the eighth- and ninth-grade girls basketball teams at July’s school board meeting.

He explained combining the East and West junior high teams into one team would allow adequate participation numbers in certain sports.

Johnson also stated the junior high teams have been invited to participate in the Central Arkansas Junior Conference. This conference would allow the junior high program to compete against the same competition they will face at the senior high level.

These changes would not take effect until the 2014-15 school year.

The Central Arkansas Junior Conference is currently made up of nine junior high schools from Conway, Cabot, Benton, Bryant, Little Rock, North Little Rock and Hot Springs.

Both Conway and Cabot have two junior high schools which field teams that play in the conference. .Johnson said the offer from the conference is for just one team from Russellville.

“My job is to gather as much information as possible,” Johnson said. “Then the school board will set the policy.”

Community members interested in providing input should address written comments via email or mail to Johnny Johnson, athletic director, at johnny.johnson@russellvilleschools.net or P.O. Box 928, Russellville, AR. 72811, no later than Aug. 9.